At 16:40 beijing time on June 21, the official Weibo of Jiangsu Suning Club announced that the club had officially signed a contract with former FC coach Cui Longsu of Seoul, South Korea, and Cui Longsu will officially serve as the head coach of Jiangsu Suning Tesco from July 1, working with the Chinese coaching team led by Gong Lei to lead the team to compete in various competitions.
Earlier, the South Korean side took the lead in releasing the news, Seoul FC officially issued a document saying that Choi Yong-so officially stepped down from Seoul, and Hwang Sun-hung, former coach of POHANG Steel, nicknamed "Yellow Bird", will succeed Choi Long-so as to coach Seoul FC.
Seoul FC has achieved excellent results under Choi Yong-so this season, ranking second with a one-point difference in the K-League 15 rounds, and also successfully reaching the quarter-finals in the AFC Champions League, facing Shandong Luneng in the quarterfinals.
According to the rankings of IFCstat, the Netherlands Football Coaching Institute, Choi Yong-so is ranked 13th, higher than former Manchester City manager Pellegrini and former Manchester United manager Van Gaal.
Choe Ryu-so has played in Seoul since his playing days, winning the best rookie in his debut season, and then playing for many Japanese and Korean powerhouses such as Sangmu Gwangju, Chiba Ichihara, Kyoto Undead Bird and Iwata Joy. He also played with the South Korean national team in the 1998 World Cup and the 2002 World Cup, and in the qualifiers of the 1998 World Cup, Choe Yong-so scored 9 goals for the "Taiji Tiger".
In 2006, Choi Yong-so returned to Seoul FC from the J-League and served as an assistant coach as a player, winning the K-League championship that season. After retiring from the military, Choi Yong-so continued to work as an assistant coach at Seoul FC, and in April 2011 he succeeded his predecessor Huang Fuguan as the official head coach of Seoul, and the following year led Seoul FC to win the K-League championship again. In 2013, Choi Yong-so led Seoul to the AFC Champions League all the way to the final, drawing 3-3 with Evergrande over two legs, but unfortunately relegated to the second place due to the disadvantage of away goals.
Last year, Choi Yong-so, who turned down a coaching offer from Jiangsu Sainty, said that rejecting Sainty and giving up generous treatment was the result of his deliberations, "Until now I have not even regretted 1%, because I love the team in Seoul, and I am full of feelings for them." He admitted at the time that he hoped to lead Seoul into the AFC Champions League, and now that Seoul has successfully advanced to the final four in East Asia, Choi Yong-so also gave a satisfactory explanation to the old owner with his own practical actions.
(Editor: Su Yang)